Rules of Procedure of the Assembly (January 2023)

(Resolution 1202 (1999) adopted on 4 November 1999) with subsequent modifications of the Rules of Procedure* * Resolutions 1220 (2000), 1234 (2000), 1235 (2000), 1266 (2001), 1275 (2002), 1284 (2002), 1296 (2002), 1325 (2003), 1343 (2003), 1348 (2003), 1356 (2003), 1368 (2004), 1369 (2004), 1379 (2004), 1395 (2004), 1431 (2005), 1432 (2005), 1445 (2005), 1447 (2005), 1448 (2005), 1490 (2006), 1491 (2006), 1503 (2006), 1504 (2006), 1515 (2006), 1529 (2006), 1554 (2007), 1583 (2007), 1584 (2007), 1585 (2007), 1658 (2009), 1698 (2009), 1699 (2009), 1712 (2010), 1780 (2010), 1799 (2011), 1841 (2011), 1842 (2011), 1854 (2011), 1903 (2012), 1911 (2012), 1937 (2013), 1965 (2013), 2002 (2014), 2058 (2015), 2102 (2016), 2169 (2017), 2182 (2017), 2208 (2018), 2278 (2019), 2287 (2019), 2349 (2020), 2350 (2020), 2360 (2021), 2392 (2021), 2405 (2021)<br><br>Wherever used herein, the masculine form refers to both women and men, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The words "President", "Vice-President", "Secretary General", "Representative", "Substitute", "chairperson", etc. refer to persons of both sexes.

Rules of Procedure of the Assembly

Parts: I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII.

Complementary texts

Parts: I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII.

Index

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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    Exceptional procedures Retour au sommaire Atteindre l'élement suivant

      Rule 51 - Urgent procedure in the Assembly On 27 June 1994 the Assembly took note of the proposals on urgent procedure made by the Bureau (Doc. 7080, item XXII): “Depending on their presentation, the Bureau shall examine requests for urgent procedure having due regard to the business in hand before the end of the Part-Session. The President (or another Bureau member) shall present the Bureau’s recommendation to the Assembly at its next sitting which will decide on the requests according to Rules 51.3. and 51.4. and fix the date and time of the debate(s). A committee may normally not submit more than one request for urgent procedure at any one Part-Session.” The Bureau also specified that the possibility should not be ruled out completely for a committee to present more than one request if this was justified by the events and if the committee’s request was unanimous. See also Rule 27.4. .

      51.1. At the request of the Committee of Ministers, of the committee concerned, of one or more political groups, or of twenty or more representatives or substitutes, a debate may be held on an item which has not been placed on the draft agenda as approved by the Bureau. A motion to initiate a complementary joint procedure between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly in response to a serious violation by a member State of its statutory obligations cannot be the subject of a request for urgent procedure.
      51.2. A request for urgent procedure shall be addressed to the President of the Assembly in time for the last Bureau meeting before the opening of the part-session. The President shall submit it to the Bureau On 28 June 2019 the Bureau approved admissibility and selection criteria of requests for debates under urgent or current affairs procedure (see document 14911, Appendix 3 - These replace the criteria approved in 2007, AS/Bur (2007)73). When proposing to the Assembly to hold a debate under urgent procedure, the selection criteria for the Bureau shall be the following: relative urgency (as opposed to topicality), taking into account the need for time to prepare proper draft text; the political, social or economic context at the particular point in time justifying the urgency, with the subject-matter either being a new one for the Assembly or an ongoing subject which had come to a culminating point; the controversial nature of the subject-matter, which implied higher participation by members and a bigger impact of the text adopted; the number of member States affected; the number and relative priority of all the requests tabled.The Bureau shall have right to transform a request for an urgent procedure debate into a current affairs debate. The Bureau shall have right to change the title of an urgent procedure. For both the transformation of a request and the change of the title by the Bureau, the prior agreement of those who made the original request (or their representatives) shall be required. If such an agreement is not obtained, the Bureau cannot proceed with neither transformation of a request nor change of the title. which shall make a proposal to the Assembly. The Assembly does not have the competence to turn a request for a debate under urgent procedure into a current affairs debate.
      51.3. Only the following may speak on a request for urgent procedure: one speaker for the request, one speaker against, the chairperson of the committee concerned and a representative of the Bureau speaking in its name.
      51.4. The adoption of urgent procedure shall require a two-thirds majority of the votes cast. Only affirmative and negative votes shall count in calculating the number of votes cast (Rule 40.4. ) If urgent procedure is adopted, the Assembly shall decide the date for the debate and refer the item to a committee of the Assembly for report and, if appropriate, to one or several committees for opinion.